Sunday, April 25, 2010

Tim Toone, Mr. Irrelevant

Most media offer a sentence, or not even that sometime just a phrase to Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick in the NFL draft. Inherently egalitarian in its ways, DBSF is dedicating an entire post to Tim Toone, wide receiver from Weber State.

(Before, we progress DBSF must offer a few qualifying statements. As is to be expected, DBSF never saw Tim play in college. In fact, it was through research for this piece that DBSF learned that Weber State has a football team.)

Tim Toone was selected as 48th pick of the seventh round by the Detroit Lions. A few things stick out about this fact. First, how does the first round have 32 picks, but the seventh has 48. There are still only 32 teams, right? Okay, for DBSF purposes then we will say that Tim Toone was the 16th pick in the 7th and a half round. Second, he was drafted with the last pick to play WR for the Lions. The Lions! They can't draft WRs in the first four picks. DBSF had to do extra research to discover that Toone in fact existed. Lions draft WRs so poorly, DTSB is surprised to learn that they had not accidentally drafted a non-human life form in the 7th round (or 7th and a half).

But I digress, Toone averaged about 20 yards per punt return (that led the nation). DBSF knows that the Big Sky conference isn't the NFLDL/ SEC but, 20 yards per punt return is literally spectacular. Of course, nobody expects that average in the NFL but, being able to cut substantial yardage off punts is crucial in the NFL where field position can be so critical. Toone also averaged almost 7 catches a game, and finished with over 1,100 yard receiving on the season.

Toone might be a long shot to make the league but, if DTSB had to project the success of his career in comparison to other notable Lions' wide receivers from the mid 00's it would fall as follows: 1) Toone, 2) Charles Rogers, 3) Opposing defensive backs, 4) Mike Williams.